“Happy New Year!” Once every twelve months, the world shouts those words to each other. Some- probably those of us still young and senseless- stay up celebrating on New Year’s Eve until the clock strikes midnight, just to bring in the new year properly. For many, the change of the calendar year is an opportunity to set personal goals and challenges or even to begin to effect drastic changes to their lifestyle. We call these “New Year’s Resolutions.”
But will anything in the new year truly be new? Last December, for the first time in my life, I got to experience the thrill of flying, the strangeness of a foreign country, and the great displeasure of seasickness. Now, were these things new? Of course not! Millions of people have already experienced these things before me, and millions of people will experience them again.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, observed this pattern thousands of years ago and wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Unfortunately, this pattern holds true for the bad things of life. We have seen wars, sickness, and death in the past; we do see them in the present and will see them tomorrow. These evils are all a consequence of sin and the curse of Adam.
Now, all of this sounds rather depressing, doesn’t it? Nobody likes those prospects. If only there were a way to break this cycle! Now, most New Year’s Resolutions are about improving oneself in some way. Some well-disciplined, or highly motivated individuals actually succeed at improving their physical life from time to time. But no one on earth has the power to improve themselves spiritually. According to Romans 3:23, “… all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Many attempt to bridge the gap between God and man through good deeds such as churchgoing, Bible reading, or baptism. But no matter how much good one does, a just and holy God must still judge evil. Besides this, Romans 8:8 says, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Now comes the Good News! God has made a way for deliverance from sin and empowerment for true spiritual change. Jesus has paid the penalty for our sins through death on the cross and has personally invited each of us to receive salvation through faith in His sacrifice.
When we accept His gift of salvation, we gain something far better and far more effective than a New Year’s Resolution. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” We have new purpose, new life, new strength, new joy, a new nature, and so much more.
Back in Romans 8, where we read about man’s inability to please God, we find a fitting conclusion to this New Year’s message. Verses 3-4 say, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Crossroads Bible Fellowship is located at 1002 Road B, Henderson, NE.
